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SRINAGAR: Special prayers were organised on the annual Urs of Gous-ul-Aazam commonly known as Dastageer Sahib (RA) at Srinagar’s Khanyar shrine.
After eleven daylong prayers, scores of devotees participated in night prayers in the shrine to commemorate birth anniversary of the Sheikh Syed Abdul Qadir Gilani.  Relics of the saint were displayed on this special day.
After offering Zuhr prayers, thousands gathered for the glimpse of Holy Relic here. Similar gatherings were witnessed in Saraibala and other areas of Kashmir.
Similarly, people also gathered to have a glimpse of Holy Relic in Bandipora’s Plan area amid cold.

Jammu: “Getting back power projects, revoking of AFSPA, and resolving the Kashmir issue in a peaceful manner through dialogue is in the agenda of alliance and we are working on it,” Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Tuesday. She said that her party had entered into an alliance with the BJP because her father, the late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, “was a visionary person who always believed in the institutions of democracy and he was impressed by Indian democracy.”
“Mufti sahab left the Congress as he believed that it was a national party. To work particularly for the people of state he created his own party. I believe that we all should speak in one tone for the betterment of the state rather than blaming each other,” she said.
“Technically we are connected with India but we want to integrate with it emotionally,” she said.
Over revoking of AFSPA, she said, “When conditions in the Valley will get normal, it will be revoked.”
Replying to charges of the opposition that she sought votes from the people of Kashmir in the name of stopping Modi from turning Kashmir into Gujarat, she said that she sought votes to stop the BJP from gaining a foothold in Kashmir, but when her party (the PDP) secured the mandate in Kashmir and the BJP secured the mandate from Jammu, she had to make an alliance and accept the people’s mandate.
“In 1953 the Congress betrayed NC, but still they made alliance with them. It is only to bring Kashmir out of daldal (quagmire) that we joined hands with BJP. We have an agenda of alliance on which our government is working, but these problems will be solved gradually, not abruptly. Article 370 stands; it will not be revoked. AFSPA will be revoked, but it will take time,” she said.
She thanked BJP MLAs for stopping communal tension in Jammu, Rajouri, Poonch and Chenab valley when Kashmir was burning.
Reacting to the opposition’s charges that her government had made the lives of Jammu Muslims hell, she said that when students in Kashmir were not allowed to attend their schools, thousands of Kashmiri students shifted to Jammu for education and studied without any fear.
She urged all the political leaders of the country to help in solving the lingering issues of Kashmir.
She also presented her salute to the security officers who were working on the ground for bringing normalcy to the state.

DHARWAD: First female religious leader Jagadguru Mate Mahadevi finds fault with women over increasing sexual assaults in India.
According to Coastal Digest reports, the Lingayat spiritual head was reacting to the mass molestation in Bengaluru during the New Year’s Eve celebrations urged the girls not to wear provocative clothes and do not roam late at night freely.
“There has been an increase in sexual assaults against women as they roam in the night freely.”
“It is not right on the part of girls to behave provocatively wearing skimpy dresses on the pretext of New Year’s Eve celebrations. Such conduct is an invitation to sexual perverts,” she added.
The President of Basava Dharma opined that girls should cover themselves up and ‘Dress code like in Arab countries should be introduced.’
“Women are partly responsible for rapes against them and so is society. Porn movies too play a role.
Therefore, a dress code on the lines of one in Arab countries should be introduced for women in India,” she said.
—Agencies

Rs 5 lakh for those killed and ‘good schooling’ for the pellet blinded victims; Blames Pak, resistance leadership for ‘sponsored and staged ‘uprising’

Jammu: A government job for those blinded by pellets and Rs 5 lakh compensation to families of those killed in firing or shelling by government forces during the 2016 uprising, were among the announcements made by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in the state assembly on Monday.

An inquiry will be conducted into the killing of a lecturer in Khrew and into the killing of an ATM guard in Srinagar, Mehbooba announced, and “special investigation teams will be constituted in every district to investigate the killings and blindings. Anybody found guilty will have action taken against them,” she assured.

Speaking during a debate on the killings and blindings at the hands of government forces since Burhan Wani was killed on July 8, Mehbooba told the legislative assembly that her government will rehabilitate those injured by government forces and all those who were blinded or disabled during the agitation will be provided facilities to enable them to have a good education.

Mehbooba said those who lost their eyesights would be given free education in top schools such as Doon International.

Mehbooba said she had regrets and felt sorrow for the killings and the blindings, as ‘’People were not expecting this from me.”

“I am shocked this upheaval happened in my government,’’ she said and reiterated that the agitation of 2016 was instigated and sponsored by Pakistan and the resistance leadership “in a planned, coordinated manner.”

“The 2016 uprising was pre-planned. The killing of Burhan was the trigger, and only the trigger, as the platform for this was prepared before. Conditions were created by raising the issues of separate townships to rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits and for setting up of Sainik colonies,” Mehbooba said.

‘’As CM it was my responsibility to stop casualties and save life and property. We had the means of curfew and we imposed it. But on the one side we were trying to stop killings and casualties, on the other side chalo calls were being given, people were being provoked to violence. I again repeat that conditions were created, preparations were made earlier. The agitation was sponsored and staged,” Mehbooba said.

The youth leading the uprising, Mehbooba said, had much to answer for. She said that children were stopped and not allowed to attend their schools; banks were looted and weapons were snatched from security personnel of political leaders.  She said it was not security personnel but agitating youth who were harassing patients.

“It is a shame for them that they stopped a pregnant lady and asked her to show whether she was really pregnant or staging a drama. It is shame for them who stopped an aged dialysis patient from having his dialysis done,” she said.

“Curfew was imposed with the aim to stop people from coming out of their homes. But people came out in thousands from areas where we had no anticipation,” she said and added that 50 police stations and army installations were damaged. “When people stormed security camps, the troops had to fire in retaliation. It is not easy to exercise maximum restraint when people with petrol bombs attack a police station,” she said.

Mehbooba said the situation in 2016 was far more turbulent than in 2010. She said that Omar Abdullah had the support of his father but she was handling the situation all by herself. She asked Omar why was he silent when a deaf-and-dumb civilian was killed by security forces near Gupkar Road during his stint.

She told the legislative assembly that in the 2016 uprising, the eyesight of six children had been fully damaged; 20 children had lost eyesight in one eye; and 100 people had both eyes partially damaged.

Appreciating the role of the health department, the food and supplies department, and the education department, she said they helped people survive through the difficult conditions.

Criticising the Hurriyat leaders without naming them, she said that they did not open their doors when a delegation from Delhi came to visit them.  “The whole country was looking at them but they did not open their doors. Had they done so, a dialogue would have started,” she said.

On the detention of persons under the Public Safety Act, Mehbooba informed that 370 persons had been detained under PSA of whom 138 were in jail. She said those who do not have a “criminal background” will be soon released. “Earlier we started the FIR withdrawal process but it was disrupted due to the uprising,” she said.

Reasserting that she had no information of Burhan Wani’s killing, she said, “I received the information regarding the killing of Burhan in late hours. When a police official informed me that three militants were killed in an encounter in south Kashmir and Burhan Wani was one among them, I knew that people in thousands will participate in his funeral. I directed police to exercise maximum restrain to avoid casualties,” she said.

She also condemned the attack on GREF personnel at Akhnoor in which three personnel were killed.

Srinagar: Cold wave tightened its grip in Kashmir as many places experienced coldest night of the season with the famous ski-resort of Gulmarg recording the lowest temperature in January in the last five years.
The night temperature across the Valley and Leh region, except Kokernag, dipped by several degrees as the cold wave tightened its grip after few days of respite due to snowfall last week, a Meteorological Department official said here.
The famous tourist resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded the minimum temperature of minus 12.4 degrees Celsius, down nearly five degrees from the previous night’s minus 7.6 degrees Celsius, the official said.
He said it was the lowest night temperature at the resort in the month of January since 2012.
In 2012, Gulmarg recorded the lowest night temperature in the month on January 13, when the mercury settled at minus 16.5 degrees Celsius. Thereafter, the mercury has not dropped below minus 12.0 degrees Celsius at the resort till last night.
Pahalgam hill resort, in south Kashmir, also experienced the season’s lowest night temperature at minus 9.2 degrees Celsius down six degrees from minus 3.2 degrees Celsius the previous night, the MeT official said.
Kargil, in Ladakh region, was another place which recorded the coldest night of the season so far with a low of minus 12.2 degrees Celsius.
The nearby Leh town registered a low of minus 11.4 degrees Celsius down over three degrees from the yesterday’s minus 8.0 degrees Celsius, the official said.
Srinagar recorded a low of minus 2.3 degrees Celsius a drop of two degrees from the previous night’s minus 0.3 degrees Celsius.
He said the night temperature in the city is three degrees below the normal for this part of the season.
The mercury also went down by nearly two degrees in Qazigund, the gateway town to Kashmir Valley, and settled at a low of minus 2.0 degrees Celsius.
The north Kashmir town of Kupwara recorded a low of minus 3.6 degrees Celsius, he said.
Kokernag, in south Kashmir, was the only place where the night temperature improved slightly. The town recorded a low of minus 2.8 degrees Celsius up from yesterday’s minus 3.7 degrees Celsius, the official said.
Kashmir is currently under the grip of ‘Chillai-Kalan’ considered the harshest period of winter, when the chances of snowfall are most frequent and maximum and the temperature drops considerably.
‘Chillai-Kalan’, which, began on December 21 last year, ends onJanuary 31, but the cold wave continues even after that.
The 40-day period is followed by a 20-day long ‘Chillai-Khurd’ (small cold) and a 10-day long ‘Chillai-Bachha’ (baby cold).

Srinagar: In a tribute to former Chief Minister and founder of the ruling PDP Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on his first death anniversary, senior separatist leader and former Hurriyat Chairman Prof Abdul Gani Bhat has said Mufti died while serving people and he believes that he died a pleasant death.In a six-page tribute, which has been published in the “Sheeraza” of the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, highlighting the contributions of Mufti, the separatist while quoting Persian mystic Moulana Rumi, writes: “The beauty of living lies in dying, which you can recognise only at death. If you die serving your people, alleviating the pain of people, your dying will be pleasant. More pleasant than the pleasant mornings of spring.”Comparing Mufti’s death in this backdrop, who he addresses as “My friend”, Bhat writes, “My friend Mufti Mohammad Sayeed chose to take stock of the projects under construction in Srinagar from morning till evening towards the end of his life. He fell in the evening and never got back to Srinagar alive. He died while serving and I believe he died a pleasant death. God bless him.”Recalling his school and college days, Bhat says he made friends with Mufti when both of them were on the cusp of puberty and had enrolled for further studies in Srinagar’s SP College. He added that they first met in the Barbar Shah locality of Srinagar.“Hum dono gaon say taluq rakhtay thay. Mera taluq Kamraz say tha aur unka taluq Maraz say tha aur hum yamraz mein jama ho gay” (We both hailed from villages. I was from Kamraz ‘north Kashmir’. He was from Maraz (south Kashmir) and we both met in Yamraz (central Kashmir Srinagar).“Mufti Sahab was bigger, bulkier and probably a shade more impressive than me. But, let me go on record that in all humility that I would never disappear in his shadow,” Bhat said.Revealing the level of the relationship, both of them shared, the Hurriyat leader writes that he shared a personal relation with the former Chief Minister, not the political as many would like to believe, adding that Mufti, who hailed from Bijbehara town in south Kashmir, used to visit his Botengoo village in north Kashmir’s Sopore area.“I also used to visit Mufti’s home on his invite, when the Mufti household used to prepare fish and vegetable,” Bhat writes.“Before he (Mufti) took over as CM, he would always call me for such feasts. He would occasionally give me a ring for a meeting during his Chief Ministership but I would not oblige. I never saw him at his home in his position as Chief Minister of J&K,” Bhat further revealed.Describing Mufti’s traits, Bhat writes, “He was never quarrelsome. He could laugh away opposition or perhaps ignore it silently.”“The truth is that we were two bodies but one spirit,” Bhat writes while describing his friendship with Mufti, adding that “He has left, but I am still alive. But till my last breath I would keep on paying tributes to him.”Bhat writes that despite belonging to two opposite political thoughts and camps, both of them never allowed the “negativities” to influence their friendship.Bhat also recalled his visit to Mufti’s town during campaigning for the Muslim Muttahida Mahaz – the united front of  Kashmir’s politico-religious parties that took part in 1987 Assembly elections.“I believed that if Mufti would not support us, he would also not oppose us,” Bhat writes while recalling his election campaign in Mufti’s town in 1987 when Mufti headed Congress in J&K.

Srinagar: Nearly two years back, a mobile video of Noor Mohammad Shah singing traditional Kashmiri songs on a roadside while playing ‘rabab’ was uploaded on YouTube. Shah, a folk singer, then became Valley’s own YouTube sensation by registering nearly 1.75 lakh views on his video.Later, Shah’s other videos singing at home and roadsides went viral on social networking websites. Despite his fame and a few recordings for television and radio as part of a troupe, Shah continues to sing door to door to eke out a living. “When people see me at their doorsteps, they tell me I don’t know how popular I am on YouTube. However, I struggle to make a living and I earn by singing door to door and at Sufi shrines,” said Shah, after singing at a house in the uptown Rawalpora area. Shah, in his fifties, hails from Handwara in the Kupwara district and also used to play ‘rabab’ – a traditional musical instrument for the troupe of folk singer GM Shah. “I was a part of the troupe of GM Shah. We did a few recordings for Doordarshan and radio but for over a year now, we have not been given a chance to perform. Now, I have no choice but to survive on money given to me by people when I sing at their homes or at shrines,” he said.Shah said he fell in love with singing as a child during a ‘mehfil’ held at the house of a local Sufi saint at his village. “When I sang at the peer’s (saint’s) house, people said there was spirituality in my voice. Then, I decided to become a singer,” he added.He said there was a time when he used to make a decent earning but now he was going through hard times. Despite that, Shah said he was singing ‘for God’ and would pass on his art to his son.“Yes, I am not earning much. However, Sufi music is divine and I sing for God. I will continue to sing and I hope my son carries forward my legacy,” he said. (TNS)

Srinagar: An 11-year-old boy Shafat Hassan, a resident of Theedh Harwan has a serious cardiac problem. According to reports, his father, Ghulam Hassan Bhat is a poor man

Shafat is currently under treatment at Fortis Escorts hospital  New Delhi and has been advised to undergo Open Heart Surgegy at an estimated cost of Rs 6 lac.

The reports suggest that Bhat’s of Harwan cannot afford the treatment and require monetary assistance.

The donators who intend to save this young precious life can verify facts from their end as well.

Account no. 1243040100007997

Name: Ghulam Hassan Bhat

Branch: New Theed Harwan

IFSC Code: JAKA0THEED 

SRINAGAR: Footballers Basit Ahmed and Mohammed Asrar Rehbar are all set to play Sociedad Deportiva Lenense Proinastur – a third division professional club from the Spanish La Liga – for the next six months, making them the first Kashmiris to represent India at such a level.
“Based on the results of the trials, we are proud to announce the selection of Basit Ahmed for Centre Forward and Muhammed Asrar Rehbar for Winger, a statement issued by CRPF said
The duo will be playing in the Spanish La Liga 3rd division for the team,” the spokesman added.
Both players were chosen by a special committee formed by the CRPF to pick footballing talent from the Kashmir Valley as part of its “initiative to engage with the youth.”
“These boys were shortlisted on the basis of their performance in the football talent hunt conducted by CRPF,” it added.
A three-member selection committee was formed to conduct trials for this selection, consisting of Anit Ghosh, Ishfaq Ahmed and Hilal Rasool Parray.
Speaking to Kashmir Reader Mohammad Asrar Rehbar, who plays on the Right wing position, said when my name was announced as one of the selected player, I got emotional and couldn’t control my emotions as tears of joy came out of my eyes.”
The 18-year-old Rehbar, who hails from uptown Srinagar, said “star players from valley Ishfaq Ahmad and Mehraj-u-din Wadoo are his mentors and after watching them playing I get inspiration from them
Rehbar said that he has played in the Santosh Trophy, Durand Cup and I-league and various national tournaments in various age groups.
He added “we are leaving for Spain in the last week of January.”
Rehbar, a 12th class commerce student, has played for Local clubs like J&K Forest Team, Lone Star Kashmir Football Club and currently playing for Real Kashmir Football Club
“It is for the first time that any Indian player will be seen playing for a Spanish La Liga club. The Ops Kashmir Sector, CRPF was given the responsibility of identifying this talented player,” the spokesman added.
“Kashmir has produced top class players who have gone on to play at both National and International level like Abdul Majid Kakroo, Ishfaq Ahmed and Mehrajuddin Wadoo,” a CRPF spokesman said.

Patnitop: Hundreds of tourists today thronged Patnitop and Nathatop to enjoy the season’s first snowfall.While Patnitop has so far received half a foot of snowfall in the last 48 hours, at Nathatop it is about one and a half feet. Enthusiastic tourists, especially youth, reached Patnitop to enjoy the snowfall.“On Friday, we had to return from Udhampur. But today we managed to reach here after the highway was cleared,” said Pankaj Gupta of Jammu who had come with his friends and family. “We enjoyed a lot. It was a dream come true for us,” he added. Hundreds of tourists from Katra and Jammu also reached Patnitop. Most of them planned to stay here.“We got married last month, we were waiting for the snowfall. Today we have come here along with other couples and enjoying snowfall. We will stay at Nathatop for two days and are hopeful that the highway will be opened so that we can reach the Kashmir valley soon,” said Vishab Gupta and his wife, who had come from Chandigarh.The owners of hotels, guest houses and lodges at Kud, Patnitop and Batote are very happy as after many months of dry season, they are hopeful of good days ahead. “Tourists from Chandigarh, New Delhi and other parts of northern India have already got their bookings confirmed online and our hotels are almost packed,” said Koushal Sharma, president, Hotel Association, Patnitop.“We have got confirmed bookings from the Jammu railway station till Patnitop during the winter and are expecting a very heavy rush of tourists,” said Ravi Kalsi, president, Taxi Operators’ Union.  TNS